Her prison
by Satella's Love
Summary: Everyone knows Percy's story but what about a certain Moon Goddess? Now COMPLETED! However if anyone wants to make a sequel, feel free to!
1. Chapter 1

I do not own the Percy Jackson series, that would be Rick Riordan.

Chapter 1

The universe; endless, infinite, intriguing and random. Except, it wasn't. Not to her, to her the universe was boring, predictable and limited. To her the universe was so easily defined, so easily understood, it was pointless. Then again she was a goddess so perhaps it was understandable that she could so easily say that life was pointless.

Except she didn't think that, not anymore. Not since she met him. He was everything the universe wasn't. He was immeasurable, an anomaly. He was constantly changing, stubbornly refusing to have his moves anticipated. He was ever so different, so unique that every time she thought she had him. He would pull back another hidden layer of his fathomless personality. She ached to be with him, every second spent in his very presence was treasured. She revelled in his words. And yet she could not be with him.

It was impossible.

Inconceivable.

Why?

He knew her secret. He knew her flaw. He knew her weakness. And try as she might, no matter how many attempts, she could not, would not let him in. Not when he already knew her so well.

Not when he might hurt her.

Not when he knew of her loneliness.

Not when he knew of her longing to truly live.

Not when he knew of her battered hope.

She had vowed long ago, never to let herself be betrayed by the seemingly innocent faces that morphed into twisted masks of destruction. Betrayers that had struck when one leaves themselves vulnerable. So why was her soul so conflicted when she watched, as he was offered godhood?

When he refused his chance, showing yet another layer of previously unknown quality. This time a layer of selflessness when he single-mindedly gave up immortality and power to instead give recognition to those in the shadows, she faltered. She sat atop her throne of silver unsure of herself whilst he confidently flipped the tables on the arrogant Olympians. When she internally stumbled over her feelings, he determinedly strode on and berated the most powerful gods.

He was the biggest enigma she had ever encountered.

Whose words should she act upon, her heart or on her mind?

That he could put her in such a state of quandary with such few and simple words. Should have worried her but instead she only felt more drawn to him. The moth to the flame.

When he made his reasons for turning down godhood known, she fell. She fell from higher than she had lead herself to believe that she would. She had almost deluded herself into thinking she didn't care, she had been so close to ignorant bliss but he had unknowingly snatched that away. He had rampaged all over her tranquillity. He had broken her happiness. For the first time in centuries she felt pain, excruciating pain as any last slivers of hope that she had held slipped from her grasp. Her heart fell into a cold abyss. Never to climb out again. Never would she hope again.

He continued on. He smiled. He joked. He lived.

She stopped. She cried. She broke. She died.

She should have known. She had known. She just hadn't wanted to believe. She knew she had given in to her heart. Her soul couldn't control it. In all honesty she blamed hope. Hope had fooled her with illusions of joy. She also blamed herself, she had listened to her heart once and it had failed her. She should have known better. She had known. However she took the gamble, anything to come even an inch closer to life. The fairy tales got it wrong though, the gamble never pays off. The shining knight in armour doesn't come and rescue the princess. The shining knight in armour ignores the princess and finds another. This princess stays stuck in her prison left there by Perseus Jackson.

It was ironic she knew, he had just preached to them about Calypso. Stuck in her prison forced to fall in love with any hero who passed by and here she was, stuck in her prison falling in love with the very hero who had demanded Calypso be set free. Would he set her free? No, he wouldn't. He would leave her. Even if he had never known he had, had her heart, it still hurt. It hurt as bad as the first time.

It hurts as bad as Orion.

Another son of the sea. What a coincidence.

When Perseus disappeared she felt pain she didn't know was possible, but she had expected it. This time she hadn't deluded herself with the illusion of freedom. She had known Perseus still had her heart trapped in a silver cage. She had known she would still watch him with hidden longing. She hadn't fought it. She knew from experience it was futile. Her only comfort was that eventually it would end, but she knew that even if he were to die there would still be pain. It was an endless cycle for her. The only thing different this time was she refused to lie to herself. It was a small comfort to know that whatever he did she hadn't lied to herself.

He was back. He had brought with him the Romans. One of them was the brother of Thalia, her lieutenant huntress. Her hunters. Ever since she had stopped lying to herself she decided to stop hunting with her hunters. After all, the Hunt had just been a distraction. A way to deceive herself. She was over that now. She would never lie to herself again. Love wasn't real.

It never was.


	2. Chapter 2

This world belongs to Rick Riordan.

AN: This will probably be the end of this little two-shot. Also sorry for any stuff ups, or confusing parts. Thanks to ScarletGuardian for doing the final edit.

The world; happy, friendly, opportunistic and boundless, not to him. To him the world was so fake, so deceiving and most importantly so _chained_. No one knew that they were chained though, they lived happily in the delusion that they were free. They would likely believe they were free forever. That's just how excellent the world was at tricking them. They would never know.

He did though.

And the knowledge haunted him during every waking hour.

There had been a time when he hadn't seen past the deceptions, he had been carefree and happy. It had all changed the day when he went on a quest to save the goddess in chains. When Bianca had died he realised how many expectations people had. Nico expected him to be an amazing hero, capable of protecting his sister. Bianca expected him to be an awesome adopted brother who would save her no matter what she did. Even Chiron had expected him to miraculously save Bianca and fulfil the prophecy.

They were all disappointed even if they never said it, all of them except for her.

The look on her face when he told her about Bianca's death had intrigued him. She seemed sad for a moment before immediately becoming accepting. Almost as if she refused to grieve or even feel sadness. Almost as if she refused to be weak. Though the reason her reaction was so surprising wasn't what she felt, but rather what she didn't. She didn't blame him, even though she had every right to. She didn't seem disappointed that he couldn't save Bianca. She didn't even seem to feel any scorn for him, despite being a renowned man-hating goddess. She seemed almost as if she was dead. Emotionally dead. That was when he realised he wasn't the only one who saw the chains. Artemis could see the chains too. She too was chained.

 _The goddess in chains._

He remembered when he had been younger, his mom used to bake blue cookies for him to make him happy. He used to love them just like how he used to idolise heroes, how he used to wish he had special powers. Oh, how utterly foolish of him. He hadn't realised how glamourized the life of a hero was. He hadn't seen how childish blue cookies were. He hadn't seen how much agony and misfortune special powers brought upon their bearers.

He wished desperately that he could have seen how silly those dreams were. He wished he could turn back time and redo everything, now that he knew he had made all the wrong decisions. If only he could change it all. He couldn't though and he knew it.

He felt like breaking down and crying now. He felt like destroying their illusion of the perfect hero. For the first time in his life he felt understanding for Luke. Luke was the older brother, the best friend, the sword genius and the hero. He would bet all he had that Luke had joined Kronos to break the façade, rather than some petty attention seeking needs. He commended Luke, in fact he wanted to do what Luke did. He wanted to throw it all away.

But he couldn't, so instead he did what he had done when he realised how childish blue cookies were.

He pretended.

He pretended that everything was fine and just super-duper.

After all, if he didn't fake it his mother would be _disappointed_ in him.

His mother who had been there for him for everything. His perfect mother, the one who made everything blue just because he wanted it. His kind mother who put up with an idiotic man who gambled nearly all their money away just so he would be safe. His amazing mother that put up with him constantly running of into life threatening situations at the whims of a mummy in an attic.

Anyway, even if he tried to break the pretence they would never let him leave. They would never let him destroy their picture perfect scenes. Their beautiful entertainment. The gods were like that, always demanding for stereotypes. Even Luke was forced to conform to something he wasn't. He wasn't an attention seeker, he was a person with too many expectations placed upon his shoulders.

So he tried hard to smile when they offered him godhood and refused. Feeling sick for acting so heroic. How dare they offer him godhood when it was Luke who killed Kronos? How dare they pointedly ignore those minor gods? How dare they shun everyone else except for their heroes? He felt a slight sense of satisfaction when he said 'no' to them.

He was genuinely surprised that he wasn't dying when he shouted to her his fake reasons for refusing godhood. The pain felt real enough. He wished he could erase from his memory the turbulent emotions that flashed across her face before it became blank once more.

His mouth tasted like ash when he kissed Annabeth.

After all, Annabeth could never be her.

He did feel guilty for lying to Annabeth though, and it wasn't a lot but he had felt something for Annabeth. However, those feelings had just been a simple crush that have long since faded. What he felt when dealing with her was different. No matter how much he wanted to though he could never be with her. The gods wouldn't allow it. The only one he was allowed to love was Annabeth.

But Annabeth was just a substitute for her.

He had many regrets in life, a testament of his many mistakes. However, after these 2 and a half months with Annabeth he had a massive regret. He regretted not standing up in Olympus and telling the gods that he loved her. He regretted not immediately finding her after the rewards ceremony and telling her everything. Most of all, he regretted crushing her.

Crushing her hope.

Razing her dreams.

Destroying her chances to be free.

After all, he had seen her. Just as she had seen him. He was sure that she had felt the same emotions. The emotions he still felt for her. He knew she had felt elated when she saw there was another who could see the chains, who desired to be free, to live. He knew this because he had felt it when he saw her.

He had hoped.

She had hoped.

That maybe, just maybe they could free themselves from their dead, despondent world. He couldn't though. He was chained by his mother and the Olympians. She couldn't either. She was chained by her inner fears and the Olympians.

So together they continued to lie, deceive and fake their lives. They were the ones who could see the chains that the world was bound in. They were the ones forced to go through a monotone torture.

They would never be free from their chains.

It was impossible.


End file.
